Ottawa Hosts The Tournament Of Champions

Men's Tier One: A Changing of the guard

This past trillium tour played witness to the most bizarre of fluctuations in the men's tier one standings. It saw teams like The Magellan Mustangs, The Ottawa Bulls, and Gator Ted's Blue Devils emerge their way towards the top of the standings, as well as the fall of usual "top five" stalwarts, The Mississauga Bud Vipers (Kubus less Rattlers), Landell Jets (the name speaks for the merger), and the Burlington Spartans. (Ottawa finished one, two and three??? Since when does that happen???) From rank two through twelve, parity would best describe this group of teams. The number one slot, belonging to The Ottawa Nepean Canadians, represented what "number one" should, the absolute best. The Canadians were in a class of their own in 2002. Though they had their share of one point scares, The Canadians final Trillium record of 26 and 0 set them apart from the rest of the pack.

This brings us to The Tournament Of Champions 2002. Five out of province teams made the grade for the 16 team tier one pool, giving Ontario 11 teams in the draw. Way to go Ontario!. You can go to www.tfont.com to view the entire tier one class.

We begin with the preliminary finals of the tournament. Third ranked Ottawa Bulls took on 9th seed Montreal GMP Monster. In a back and forth battle, The Bulls kicked a single on the last play of the game to send the speedy Montreal team packing. The 8th seed Winnipeg Assassins battled it out with the defending Champion, The Mississauga Bud Vipers (Kubus less Rattlers). The Vipers gave Winnipeg front row seats to the rest of the tournament, defeating them 36 to 14. 5th seed Scarborough Panthers dueled it out with 7th seed Gator Ted's Blue Devils. The Panthers were left feeling blue as the Devils edged them out 25 to 20. The 4th seed Montreal Patriots weathered the storm as they defeated the 15th ranked Hamilton Hurricanes 27 to 14.

Eight teams prepared to duke it out in the quarter finals. The Canadians and Vipers went head to head first. The Canadians prolonged their winning streak, defeating the defending champs 27 to 18. Next up, in their 80th meeting of the season, city rivals, Magellan mustangs and Ottawa Bulls, squared off. Though the second half began in a 16 to 16 tie, Magellan took it to the bulls, winning 36 to 20. The crafty Spartans then handed The Montreal Patriots an unpleasant 41 to 14 send off. In our remaining quarter final, Landell and Gator Ted's (the only team to scare the Canadians thus far in a round robin 28 to 26 loss) lit the scoreboard up with 63 combined points, with Landell coming out on top, winning 36 to 27.

Monday morning left us with 4 teams to do battle in the semi finals. In our first match up, QB Rodney Moors led his Canadians against former teammates, and Toronto's own, Landell Jets. Poised for greatness, Ottawa continued their impressive run, ousting the T. Dot, 34 to 12. Despite their 12th place seed, and despite the fact that they are a newly merged entity, Landell, once again, climbed to the forefront with their impressive Tournament Of Champions placement. Speaking of climbing to the forefront again, The Burlington Spartans took their momentum to Ottawa's Mustangs. They say that experience, at this point in a tournament, can win a team games. The opposite can be said for inexperience. QB John Davidson, and his Mustang mix of youth and experience, couldn't overcome the shrewd core that makes up The Spartans. In a very close game, Burlington defeated Magellan, 32 to 22. Though they struggled through much of 2002, the Spartans did what they do best, perform well in the fall. Since 1989, the Burlington Spartans organization has made an astounding 11 National final appearances, winning in four of them.

The Ottawa Canadians, and their 31 and 0 record, were set to complete the goal that they set last October when they were humbled by Mississauga's Rattlers 44 to 0. Their goal, of course, was to bring the national title to themselves, and back to Ottawa. The Burlington Spartans, no doubt, had plans of their own. But when things are going well, things usually continue to go that way. Burlington, before they knew it, had fallen behind 36 to 0 at the half. Though they did manage to punch in a score early in the third quarter, Burlington, on this day, was no match for the speed, aggressiveness, and discipline of the Ottawa Nepean Canadians. ONC defeated The Spartans 44 to 8.

Not since the Barry Hughes led Ottawa Dolphins of 1985 has a team from the capital region been able to capture National gold. Congratulations to you, the Ottawa Nepean Canadians and congratulations to all of you, the 16 teams who competed at this, the highest level of touch football in Canada.

Ottawa Nepean Canadians, Men's 2002 Canadian Champions

Burlington T. Litzen Spartans, Men's 2002 finalists